THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, October 26, 1994 TAG: 9410260581
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C6 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY HARRY MINIUM, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 85 lines
The hottest rivalry in the East Coast Hockey League resumes tonight when the Greensboro Monarchs meet the Hampton Roads Admirals at Scope at 7:30.
The two traditional ECHL powers have won three championships between them in the last six years, and have the league's two best-known coaches in the Admirals' John Brophy and Greensboro's Jeff Brubaker.
Although Brubaker played for Brophy twice, the two have feuded openly in recent years, as have their players. Last year the war of words exploded into the ECHL's most notorious fight. Twelve players were ejected and 249 penalty minutes were meted out after Greensboro's Jamie Nicholls jumped Admirals center Brendan Curley on the opening faceoff at Scope.
Fines and suspensions followed, but the rivalry hardly mellowed. In the final contest between the two teams, Greensboro eked out a controversial 4-3 decision on a late power-play goal by Phil Berger.
The Admirals' protested the penalty that led to the power play, then the lack of a penalty when Admirals forward Dennis McEwen had his stick ripped away by a Monarch just before Berger scored.
Hampton Roads won the East Division title regardless, finishing two points ahead of the third-place Monarchs.
The rivalry first caught fire in the Admirals' second season, 1989-90. Greensboro, the defending ECHL champion, was knocked out of the playoffs by the Admirals, who went on to win their first title.
A year later, the Admirals won their second ECHL title, again after beating Greensboro.
Ever since, the fans, players and coaches in both cities have loved to hate each other.
The Fight, as it is called around the ECHL, likely won't be repeated tonight. Most of the faces from last year, including Nicholls and Suerve Sears, who skated around the ice trying to goad Admirals defenseman Brian Goudie into a fight, are gone.
Greensboro lost all but seven players from last season, including most of its leading scorers and top defensemen.
The player the Monarchs will miss most is Berger, the team's all-time leading scorer, who once skated around Scope making obscene gestures to the fans. He's playing in Germany.
``There will always be a good rivalry between Greensboro and Hampton Roads,'' Admirals president Blake Cullen said. ``There's too much history for there not to be.
``But all of that stuff (the fight) is over.''
BROPH TALK: Brubaker had kind words for Brophy during a recent interview in the Greensboro News and Record.
``Brophy was the guy who taught me how to play hockey,'' said Brubaker, who played for Brophy in Toronto and Nova Scotia.
It was in Toronto that Brubaker says Brophy taught him how to get into shape. Brophy would turn on the escalators at Maple Leaf Gardens and make him run up the down escalator and down the up escalator.
BROPH TALK II: The Charlotte Checkers received good news on the eve of the Admirals' game there last Saturday.
First, they signed a working agreement with the New York Rangers. They already had agreements with the Boston Bruins and the IHL's Chicago Wolves.
Then, the Russian Hockey Federation faxed a letter certifying that Andrei Bashkirov had played only one season professionally in Europe. That means the Checkers don't have to classify him as a veteran. ECHL teams are limited to three veterans.
Bashkirov, 24, had been declared a veteran by ECHL commission Pat Kelly until the Checkers could prove otherwise.
Brophy's reaction after the Admirals' 2-1 loss to Charlotte?
``They played well ... but they have 32 working agreements and they've got Russians that are going backwards in age. They've got guys who must have played in the Second World War. I have no idea how all this stuff is happening, but that's all right. If our power play had been working, we would have been fine.''
BROPH TALK III: Newsday's Joe Gergen ran into Brophy during the Sweetpea Whitaker-Buddy McGirt fight at Scope on Oct. 1 and managed to work the Admirals into his fight story.
Wrote Gergen: ``Alas, the overall show was less than stellar. The only `celebrities' not identified with boxing announced from the ring were the comedian Sinbad, who happened to be appearing at a local college, and John Brophy, the coach of the Hampton Roads Admirals, who won the East Coast Hockey League (division) title last season in the same building. And it could be argued that Brophy had more boxing experience than both combatants combined during his years as a defenseman with the Long Island Ducks.'' by CNB